HUREWITZ, ISRAEL (Z. LIBIN):

Russian-American playwright; born Dec., 1872, at Gorki, government of Moghilef. Between 1885 and 1888 he received some secular tuition from his brother, Ḥayyim Dob Hurwitz, the Hebrew economist and journalist. After working at a trade for some years, he emigrated to London (1892), and nine months later went to the United States. There he made his way, step by step, to a well-earned reputation as a writer. In 1902 his "Yidishe Sketches" appeared, under the pseudonym "Z. Libin," depicting with accuracy and vividness many phases of Russian-Jewish life in New York. In 1898 he successfully essayed writing plays for the Judæo-German stage of New York. Since then he has been writing regularly and successfully for that stage. He has produced: "Dovid und Zain Tochter" (1899); "Die Gebrochene Schwue" (1900); "Die Idishe Medea" (1901); and "Gebrochene Hertzer" (1903).